NORMAL SCHOOLS: 



THEIR RELATIONS 



PRIMARY AND HIGHER INSTITUTIONS OF LEARNING, 



AND TO THE 



WELFARE AND PROGRESS OF SOCIETY, 



TOGETHER WITH 



THEIR FUTURE IN THE UNITED STATES. 



WILLIAM F. PHELPS, A. M., 

Principal of the New Jersey State Normal School. 



TRENTON : 
PRINTED AT THE OFFICE OF THE " TRUE AMERICAN." 

1 8 .') 7. 







NORMAL SCHOOLS: 



THEIR RELATIONS 



PRIMARY AND HIGHER INSTITUTIONS OF LEARNING, 



AND TO THE 



WELFARE AND PROGRESS OF SOCIETY, 



TOGETUER WITH 



THEIR FUTURE IN THE UNITED STATES. 



WILLIAM F. PHELPS, A.M., 

Principal of the New Jersey State Normal School. 



TRENTON : 
PRINTED AT THE OFFICE OF THE '« TRUE AMERICAN." 

18 5 7. 






In oxchang-e 
Peabody Institute 

Baltimore 
*^G 2 , 1920 



TO THE 

HONORABLE RICHARD S. FIELD, 

OF PRINCETON, 
THE EARNEST, DEVOTED, AND INTELLIGENT ADVOCATE OF 

formal Schools, 

AND OF 

POPULAR EDUCATION, 

AVHOSE INTEREST FOR THE CAUSE IS GENEROUSLY MANIFESTED 

BY DEEDS NO LESS THAN BY WORDS, 

THESE HUMBLE PAGES ARE GRATEFULLY INSCRIBED BY 

HIS OBLIGED FRIEXD, 

THE A UTHOR. 



PREFATORY REMARKS. 

The following pages form Parts Second and 
Third, of the Second Annnal Report of the Prin- 
cipal of the New Jersey State Normal School, for 
the year ending February 9tli, 1857. They owe 
their existence in the present shape alike to the 
suggestion and the Uberalif// of the Hon. Richard 
S. Field, President of the Board of Trustees of 
that Institution. 

Whatever of incongruity they may exhibit 
may be attributable to their separation from the 
document before refeiTed to. 

The undersigned begs leave rcspectfull}^ to 
submit them to the consideration of the friends of 
that higher and nobler fonn of education, wliich 
is so much required by the exigencies of oiu* age 
and people, and which properly organized and 
conducted Normal Schools are so eminently fitted 
to develop and disseminate, in the humble hope 
that they may be instnmiental in awakening among 
all classes a more just appreciation of the important 
class of Institutions to which they are devoted. 

W. F. PHELPS. 

New Jersey Slate Normal School, 
Trenton, Feb. 9th, 18-37. 



RELATIOiNS OF NORMAL SCHOOLS TO SOCIETY- 

An Examination of the Relations of Normal Schools to the Primary 
and Higher Institutions of Learning, and hence to the Welfare and 
Progress of Society. 



Education, viewed in its most comprehensive sense, may be 
defined to be both a Science and an Art. 

As a Science, it investigates the laws which regulate the 
harmonious development of the physical, intellectual, and 
moral powers of the human being. 

As an Art, it applies those laws to the cultivation, and, as 
far as possible, to the perfection of man's three-fold nature. 

Regarded in this imposing aspect, there is not an organ of 
the body, a faculty of the mind, nor an affection or passion of 
the soul, which its forces should not aim to reach, cultivate, 
strengthen, or subdue. 

Between education and learning, between an educated man 
and a learned man, there is a marked distinction. While 
profound attainments in positive knowledge are by no means 
to be underrated or undervalued, neither are they to be sub- 
stituted for that thorough discipline, that careful training of 
all the powers and faculties which alone can give sound 
minds in vigorous healthy bodies — which makes one know, 
feel and practice his duties and obligations to himself, to his 
family, to his neighbor, to humanity, and to the beneficent 
Author of his being. 

A merely learned man is one who has made profound at- 
tainments in knowledge, regardless of the ability requisite to 
make those attainments available for the elevation and im- 



8 



provement of his fellow-creatures, and for the advancement of 
human society. He may be apt to acquire^ but incompetent 
to impart, to disseminate, to use, to apply. An intellectual 
{riant, he may be a moral dwarf, a social non-entity, a physi- 
cal imbecile ; a human encyclopedia, his stores of knowledge 
may be, and often are, locked up within the narrow precincts 
of his own individuality. 

An educated man, on the other hand, is he who superadds 
to his knowledge the skill, the disposition, and the ability to 
use it for the promotion of the great objects of human exist- 
ence — for the moral, intellectual, social and material progress 
of humanity. He is a man of action as well as of acquisi- 
tion. He is not only an intelligent, but a useful man ; a 
healthy, vigorous man ; an honest man, " the noblest work 
of God." lie measures his actual attainments in knowledge 
and virtue, in a great degree, by their availability and his 
opportunity for bringing himself and his brethren into har- 
mony with those immutable laws by which the Creator upholds 
and governs every domain of his universe. 

The most perfect type of human wisdom and of human 
power would therefore undoubtedly be what may be denomi- 
nated an educated scholar; or, if you please, an educated 
learned man. Such a man contains within himself not only 
a vast reservoir of power, but he is at the same time, so to 
speak, the engine through which that power is applied and 
the engineer to control its movements and guide them to the 
production of noble and beneficent results. 

But there is another fundamental truth too often disre- 
garded, which in this connection may not be altogether out 
of place. The Creator, in his infinite wisdom, while bestow- 
ing upon his creatures the same general characteristics of 
mind and soul, while giving to all the same order of faculties, 



9 



has yet impressed upon each, to a certain extent, a peculiar 
and special individuality. Mankind may thus he said to he 
an emhodiment of unity in diversity. While all have powers 
to he developed and cultivated, while all have responsibilities 
to meet and duties to perform, yet it is not to he supposed 
that all are to he fused in the same crucible, or run through 
the same stereotyped mould. As each has, to a limited 
extent, a peculiar organization, so has each a correspondent 
special adaptation ; and this adaptation is to be sought out, 
preserved, improved, and, as far as possible, perfected, to the 
end that each individual may be prepared to act well his 
part in the grand drama of human life. 

Now, Gentlemen, the question is, what kind of men does 
Society, does our Commonwealth, does our Country, does the 
World most need ? This is the great question of the age ; 
and upon its proper solution depend not only the welfare and 
progress of society, but its very existence also. 

Since human society is made up of rational beings, if it 
has wants, those wants must have their origin in the neces- 
sities of the individuals that compose it. But the necessities 
of individuals may all be summed up in the means that are 
required for the proper development and expansion of their 
manifold and undying faculties. The more perfect and the 
more widely diflfused these means, therefore, the more perfect 
the society and the less its wants. It hence follows that the 
great, unceasing, relentless want of society is, that of culti- 
vated, refined, and in the fullest sense of the term, educated 
men ; not the learned fetv, but the educated many. This want 
properly met, subordinate ones will gradually disappear ; and 
the innumerable forms of vice and crime, of injustice and 
wrong, with their endless train of nameless woes, will be 
supplanted by the benignant reign of virtue and intelligence, 



10 

and the consequent blessings of individual and social order 
and happiness. 

" So shall licentiousness and black resolve 
Be rooted out, and virtuous habits take 
Their place; and genuine piety descend, 
Like an inheritance, from age to age." 

It is evident, that for the rearing of such individuals, 
and for the production of such results as these, it is idle to 
relj upon divided, and one-sided, and partial efforts. As 
the greatest want of human society is rtian himself, — man^ 
"broad-shouldered, symmetrical, swift" man, purified, enno- 
bled, exalted — man, trained, individualized, educated, — so it 
is equally clear that the means for the accomplishment of 
this end must be commensurate with the lengths, breadths, 
depths and urgency of the want which is to be supplied. 
Such a work needs, nay, must have, to succeed, the unflag- 
ging interest, the untiring zeal, the undivided influence, the 
cordial sympathy, the earnest co-operation of every citizen, 
irrespective of party, sect, or creed. In the solution of this 
complicated problem, the family, the school in all its grada- 
tions and ramifications, the parent, the Teacher in all his 
varied relations, the patriot, the philanthropist, the Chris- 
tian, each and all have solemn duties to perform in virtue 
of a common existence, common interests, and a common 
destiny. 

The development of the mind, body, and all the parts of 
human life must, to be real, from the nature of the case, be 
progressive and slow. Beginning with the first dawn of 
being, the wprk must advance by toilsome, gradual steps, 
through the successive periods of infancy, childhood and 
youth, up to the maturity and vigor of symmetrical manhood. 
So far as Nature is left to carry on the processes of tuition. 



11 



she faithfully observes her own well-defined and benignant 
laws. It is only man in his blindness and ignorance that 
errs, and mars the exquisite handiwork committed to his 
charge. The great problem then, in the education of the 
present day, is to observe, to learn and to apply those whole- 
some lessons which Nature is ever ready to impart for our 
guidance and direction, in the work before us. 

The first lessons of infancy and early childhood are taught 
in the school of home with its clustering affections, its deep- 
toned sympathies, and its winning smiles. It is here that the 
foundations of the future character are begun. It is here 
that for good or evil the young mind receives its first impres- 
sions. Are these foundations laid in intelligence and founded 
in love? Are these early impressions all faithful transcripts 
from pure and pious hearts? If so, there is more than a 
presumption, there is almost a certainty, that the race thus 
commenced will be one of virtuous youth, of honorable, use- 
ful manhood, and of tranquil old age. If otherwise, there is 
more than a prophecy of a weary, wasted life, and an ignoble 
end. 

From the home-circle, passing to the pupilage of the Pri- 
mary School, the child is subjected to the more direct appli- 
ances of the educational process. It is here, and at this 
tender age, that the potent influence of the professional 
Teacher is first brought to bear upon his impressible nature. 
If, perchance, the home-training has been, and still is, wise 
and judicious, the task of the Teacher becomes comparatively 
easy, and his burden light; for he has but to co-operate 
with the parent in the continuation of a work already begun. 
But if, as in a majority of cases, the education of the fireside 
has been a work of perversion and misdirection, if only a 
superficial foundation has been laid, if habits of disobedience 



12 



and disorder prevail, if there be an absence of parental sym- 
pathy, co-operation and support, his position becomes one of 
almost overwhelming anxiety and insurmountable difficulty. 
It is at this stage, and surrounded by these common — alas ! 
too common — circumstances, that he is called upon to exer- 
cise all the skill and all those high attributes which his 
nature can command, for the promotion of the work com- 
mitted to his charge. 

Even under the most favorable conditions, the merely in- 
tellectual training of the young is a task of exceeding com- 
plexity. To comprehend the capacities, the peculiarities, 
the attainments, the wants of individual minds ; to bring them 
under a proper classification ; so to adjust the processes of 
tuition as to arouse their latent energies into vigorous action; 
to awaken a desire for advancement in the paths of knowledge ; 
to stimulate each and all to manly exertion and a heroic self- 
reliance, is an undertaking of no ordinary magnitude. But 
when, superadded to this, the Teacher is called upon to guide 
the development of those still higher attributes of our nature, 
to impress upon the young those lessons of morality and 
Christian virtue, those duties which they owe to themselves, 
to their fellow-creatures, and to their Creator ; when he 
passes a step further and assumes to train his charge to the 
practice of these duties, he undertakes a work which, in mag- 
nitude and importance, is commensurate with the imperish- 
able nature and the priceless worth of the material upon 
which his forces are expended. 

It is thus that we are to look to the joint partnership of 
the family and the Primary School for the origin and early 
development of that perfect stature of manhood which the 
world so much needs, and which will surely yet rise up to 
adorn, to dignify, and to bless a coming age. It is to these, 



13 

and especially to the latter, that we are to look for those 
peculiarly complicated and philosophical formative processes 
that alone can bring order out of chaos, give to the youthful 
mind its shape and direction, inspire it with an undying love 
of truth, impart to it those habits of patient application and 
of methodical procedure so essential to conduct it to definite 
and useful results, and implant the desire and prepare the 
way for that more enlarged culture which successive schools 
of superior grade may be so well adapted to secure. 

If this great work be not done by these agencies, then it 
will not be done at all, and we may as well abandon the ex- 
periment of a comprehensive system of universal education. 
It is in vain that we endeavor to make up in the High School 
and the College for the radical deficiencies of the Common 
School. As well may we attempt to purify the fountain by 
cleansing the stream that flows from it. The functions of 
the Primary School are pre-eminently formative and funda- 
mental; and beyond this work it cannot, with either propriety 
or safety, be allowed to go. To depart from it is unmitigated 
failure and irreparable injury. The task which in the 
economy of Nature is assigned to it, is all that the most 
assiduous care, the most ample means, and the most untiring 
devotion will enable it, under the most favorable circum- 
stances, to fulfill. Its work well done, that of its legitimate 
successors w^ill, with comparative ease, be accomplished. 

Beyond the Primary Schools, in a complete system of 
education adapted alike to the wants of our varied na- 
tures and to the necessities of human society, there must 
lie, on the one hand, properly organized and conducted, the 
Grammar School, the High School, and the College, or their 
equivalents; and on the other, the "Real" and the Poly- 
technic Schools, little known in our own country, but des- 



u 



tineJ in the future to take their appropriate places in the 
great scheme of public instruction. 

These two distinct classes of Institutions are undoubtedly 
the types of two distinct forms of education, each complete in 
itself, and each adapted, under suitable organization and 
management, to meet two distinct classes of wants in the 
economy of society. These wants may bo denominated the 
Philological, or those which pertain to hnrjuage in its rela- 
tions to thought, including grammar, rhetoric, criticism, the 
interpretation of authors, history and antiquities; and the 
*' Real," or those which relate to objects or things, and their 
relations to each other and to man himself. These classi- 
fications seem to be entirely natural, and to some extent, the 
result of that special organization and adaptation, before 
alluded to as existing in individuals of the human species. 
The Institutions of the first class named, followed out to 
their legitimate specialties, give rise to Schools of Law, Di- 
vinity, &c.; while those of the second, lead to Schools of 
Medicine, Natural History, Mining, Engineering, Agriculture, 
and others of like character. 

Of these two forms of education, the first, for obvious 
reasons, is the most ancient and the most prevalent. But 
with the rapid development of modern science and its appli- 
cation to the manifold purposes of life, it cannot be doubted 
that the "Real" will assume that position in the regards of 
mankind to •which its transcendent importance entitles it. 
And not alone on account of the merely utilitarian tendencies 
of science is it destined to be more generally cultivated 
through the instrumentality of schools, but pre-eminently, 
because it unfolds to man the creature an unfailing source 
of happiness and felicity in the contemplation of the works 
of the Creator ; enabling him, through a mastery of the 



15 



laws of the material universe, better to comprehend the great 
plan of God in creation, and leading him to adore and praise 
that All-wise and Eternal Being who hath thus indeed mani- 
fested himself "Philologically" and "Really," in the two-fold 
sense of his word and his works. 

If, Gentlemen, the foregoing brief summary has been made 
intelligible, it will readily be understood that from the Pri- 
mary School as a foundation, other Institutions must succes- 
sively arise adapted to carry on to completion the work already 
begun. They should flow from it as naturally as the stream 
flows from its source, widening and deepening with each influx 
of its tributaries as it moves majestically onward to the 
sea. When we understand and appreciate, as we ought, the 
object which these successive Institutions are designed to 
answer, we shall give to them such an organization as will fit 
them for the progressive development of the complex forces 
of our three-fold nature. They will thus become but logical 
parts of one consistent harmonious whole, each adapted to its 
special functions, each laboring for and aspiring to the same 
desirable and comprehensive end. 

From this commanding stand-point, having in full view the 
nature of the work which the education of the present day 
proposes, as well as the entire system of means by which this 
work is intended to be accomplished, it is an easy task to 
trace the relation of Normal Schools to the great scheme of 
public education, and to the welfare and progress of that 
society whose most urgent necessity is that of earnest, enter- 
prising, active, working, intelligent, moral, religious men, de- 
voted to the great interests of their species and to the 
fulfilment of those high destinies which man is placed here 
to work out. 

It will be easily seen that they aim to strike a powerful 



16 



and effective blow at evils at once radical and deep, that they 
seek to remove difficulties and impediments at once serious 
and overwhelming, which beset man at the very outset of his 
disciplinary and preparatory career. Descending to those 
deep well-springs of individual and social life, welfare, pro- 
gress, and happiness — the Primary Schools — they labor to 
purify, elevate and improve. Recognizing the simple truth 
that "it is the master that makes the school," they take the 
teacher by the hand, unfold to his view the fearful and won- 
derful structure of this complex physical being, teach him to 
look in upon the mysterious spirit that animates it, to under- 
stand, as far as possible its nature and capacities, to observe 
its manifestations, to master its laws, to investigate the 
methods by which its subtile forces are to be drawn out, train 
him to their application, and send him forth over the lengths 
and breadths of the land to wake up the latent energies of its 
embryo citizens, to infuse into the home circle a higher appre- 
ciation of parental duty and obligation, and to animate the 
public heart with a livelier interest in that great work which 
should ever be its chief concern. 

Hence it is that Normal Schools, by the direct and power- 
ful influence which they must inevitably exert upon the 
principal sources of public intelligence, virtue, and happi- 
ness, will serve to invigorate and intensify the entire social 
organization. If conducted in accordance with their true 
intent and spirit, if conducted as they ma?/ and should be, 
they will do more in the course of years for primary edu- 
cation, for the education of the fireside and the Common 
School, and hence for the real welfare of society, than all 
other agencies combined. For who does not know that the 
moral and intellectual renovation of entire neighborhoods is 
often effected by the almost silent, yet potent influence of a 



17 



^ood school and a faithful, intelligent, skillful and conscien- 
tious Teacher of youth? The heart of the true parent is 
said to be bound up in his child ; and if the Teacher can 
mould that child — like clay in the hands of the potter — to 
his will, by what a natural and easy transition may he not 
work upon the parent too ? leading him to a knowledge and 
practice of the duties which he owes to those who are dear 
to him as the " apple of his eye," and to his brethren of a 
common heritage. 

But Normal Schools, by virtue of their diffusion of the 
great principles of education, and the improved and philoso- 
phical methods of training based thereon, by the desire and 
ability for further advancement which they impart through 
their pupils to the young, by the habits of manly self-reli- 
ance which they instill and by the almost incredible abridg- 
ment of labor and of time which they secure, are destined to 
play an important part in that modification and regeneration 
of all those institutions growing out of the Primary Schools, 
which are certain gradually to take place. These Institu- 
tions will be forced to reorganize on a more comprehensive 
and philosophical basis. They will be obliged more fully to 
recognize the great truth, that the office of the school, of 
whatever grade, is not, and cannot be, to make profound 
scholars, but rather to train the powers of the student ; to 
arm him with the means and methods, by the proper and dili- 
gent use of which he may himself become learned, and wise, 
and good ; to teach him the uses of knowledge ; to qualify him 
for its judicious application ; to impress upon him the dignity 
and duty of labor : and thus to qualify him for whatever 
position on the busy stage of life a beneficent God may 
assign him. 

We need not mistake the sinns of the times; we need not 



18 



close our eyes ami ears to the teachings of experience. What 
has been done, and is doing on another theatre, can be done 
and will be done in our own land. While this grand idea 
of education has attained on a less congenial soil a degree 
of development hitherto unequaled and unknown, how can we 
doubt that, fostered by the genius of a people and a govern- 
ment, whose hopes and whose safety are based upon its 
legitimate results, it is destined here, to its noblest, fullest, 
most unlimited expansion. In those countries where educa- 
tion is the most complete and the most universal, Normal 
Schools are the most numerous and the most nearly perfect ; 
and they have been the all-potent agency, by means of 
which, this completeness and universality have been reached. 
They have accomplished this work by regenerating and vivi- 
fying the Primary Schools, impelling them to lay a broad 
and deep foundation, as well as creating an unconquerable 
desire in the youthful mind for higher attainments, by a 
rigorous mastery of elementary principles and a judicious 
application of the same at every stage of its progress. Dis- 
carding the dogmatic modes of teaching which compel the 
pupil to take on trust the unqualified dicta of the Master, 
and which are alike destructive of intellectual freedom and 
rational progress, they aim to develop and to disseminate 
those means and methods of tuition which result from an intel- 
ligent perception and application of those laws which God has 
imposed upon the human faculties. And while laboring for 
the improvement of the intellectual, they strive also to draw 
out the moral powers and to inculcate those kindly, cour- 
teous, and fraternal sentiments which should regulate the 
intercourse of mankind in the routine of social life. Passing 
even further still, they have been made the instruments for 
infusing into the entire texture of the Teacher's life, en- 



19 

abling him thus to inculcate it in turn upon the hearts of the 
future citizens, a spirit of contentment with whatever lot in 
the order of Providence may be assigned him, and a faith- 
ful discharge of the duties, however humble, which that lot 
imposes. 

If we do not under our own genial skies mould them to 
the accomplishment of all, and more than all, of the high 
purposes which have been indicated, it will not be because 
of their exotic origin, or of their inherent incompatibility with 
our peculiar needs, or of their lack of a direct and powerful 
relation to our most vital interests, either as individuals or 
as a people, but rather because of our blind ignorance of 
their true nature, distinctive objects, and priceless value, or 
to a perverse determination to close our eyes to the lio-ht 
alike of immutable truth and of enlightened experience. 



20 



THE FUTURE OF KORMAL SCHOOLS IN THE UNITED 
STATES. 

He who in this country sits down deliberately to calculate 
the cost of its Teachers, at the same time puts a price upon 
the privileges and the blessings which under the benignant 
sway of its government, he is permitted to enjoy. And on 
the other hand he who would even approximate to the value 
of our true, intelligent, and faithful Teachers must, as a pre- 
liminary step, absolutely determiyie the value of these same 
privileges and blessings. And again, he who feels that under 
the operation of this principle of self-government, he has a 
superabundance of the good gifts which it imparts, will find 
that the most philosophical mode of removing these incum- 
brances is to offer a premium for incompetent and inefficient 
School Masters, and send them abroad to stultify and pervert 
the juvenile mind of the community. 

But if there be any who feel deeply sensible that an 
abnormal abridgment of their rights and privileges has 
already occurred ; if there be any who have a remote sus- 
picion that justice is a costly commodity, and difficult to 
secure, at any price, that virtue and truth are held at a ruin- 
ous rate of discount, that portentous signs of anarchy and 
disorder are distinctly visible, that pauperism, idiocy, insanity, 
vice, and crime, already stalk abroad over the land in frightful 
procession, that our houses of correction and our peniten- 
taries are unduly patronized, that the demons of corruption, 
avarice, and misrule, like so many vampires, are extracting 
the life blood of the body politic, — if any have come to a reali- 
zing sense of these startling facts, they are in some measure 
prepared to appreciate the value and importance to the Re- 



21 



publican Commonwealth of a band of whole-souled, well- 
trained, and devoted Teachers of youth. If passing a step 
farther, they are penetrated by an intense desire to see these 
evils eradicated — not covered — and if they in honesty and 
sincerity, seek for the most effective means for their removal, 
they have but to exercise that ordinary common sense so 
highly commendable in every other pursuit, to perceive, and 
to know, that these same humble Teachers, imbued with the 
humanitarian spirit, filled with a sense of the magnitude of 
their mission, specially drilled and prepared for their special 
work, and full of energy and zeal for its accomplishment, 
— that these offer the surest, the only practical mode for the 
solution of so great and so important a problem. 

The Prussians say that, " whatever you would have appear 
in the life of a Nation, you must put into its Schools." But 
they may with equal truth, go still farther, and affirm that 
whatever you would put into its Schools, you must put into 
its Teachers, and whatever you would put into its Teachers, 
you must first put into its Normal Schools. No combination 
of words could be made more forcibly to express the direct 
and intimate relation of the Normal School, not only to the 
people, but to the Government itself. In determining the 
future of these Institutions, therefore, their numbers, their 
influence, in moulding the moral, intellectual, social, and 
political character of our people, we may say with impressive 
distinctness, that we likewise determine the future of our 
Government as founded upon the principle of popular virtue 
and intelligence. 

Wherefore, does it not become our Government and every 
subject of that government by every means in its and his 
power to multiply, build up, and perfect that instrumentality 
by which more than by any other, the blessings of liberty are 



')•) 



to be preserved, perpetuated and increased, through all 
coming time ? 

In Europe, these Institutions have been, according to our 
ideas, perverted to the strengthening, preservation, and per- 
petuation of arbitrary power. But how much more may they 
become the means in the hands of freemen for the propaga- 
tion of the great doctrine of equal rights, and of the inviola- 
bility of our immortal natures, as well as for cementing those 
ties of unity and of brotherhood so conductive to the welfare, 
progress and happiness of a free people. 

Tlie great length of this paper will not permit a more 
extended development of the train of thought here initiated, 
and the undersigned is compelled somewhat abruptly to ter- 
minate it by the enunciation of a few concise, yet self-evident 
propositions which must commend themselves to the assent 
and approbation of every honest and intelligent mind. 

1. A Free Government is, and ever must be based upon the 
fundamental idea of virtue and intelligence, universally 
diffused among the people. 

2. This virtue and intelligence can be adequately secured 
only by means of the thorough mental and moral training 
afforded by a general system of effectively administered 
Schools. 

3. These Schools depend for their value and efficiency 
upon a perpetual supply of well trained and properly qualified 
Teachers. 

4. All experience, no less than the dictates of common 
sense, has demonstrated that an adequate supply of compe- 
tent Teachers, fitted for the high duty of rearing a Nation of 



23 

intelligent Freemen, can be secured only through the instru- 
mentality of Normal Schools comprehending their great 
and distinctive mission, and organized and conducted with 
direct reference to the fulfilment of that mission. 

5. Whence it follows that when these self-evident truths 
come to be fully understood and acknowledged, Normal 
Schools will become co-extensive with the wants of the people, 
and co-equal with the power, the dignity, and the importance 
of the Government itself. 

Wherefore let these impressive truths sink deep into the 
hearts of all who cherish the priceless blessings of good 
government and of social order. Let them be pondered by 
those upon whom is imposed the responsibility of conducting 
the Normal "Experiment," that it be so conducted as to 
vindicate that ijerfection of common sense upon which 
these Institutions repose. Let them be weighed by the 
great mass of our "Popular Sovereigns," and by their 
servant, the Government, whose first duty it is to foster, 
encourage, perpetuate, and support. Let them not only 
sink deep into the heart, let them not only be pondered 
and weighed, but let them spring up and bring forth prolific 
fruits to the enduring welfare and glory of our country, and 
the happiness of our race. 



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